Winter Fruit and Veggie Cleanse

As some of you may already know, I'm a big fan of cleansing. Every now and again, I like to change my dietary habits completely to rid my body of any accumulated toxins.

I also think that a good cleanse now and again helps to "reset" my dietary habits. We all know that no matter how "good" we are with our diets, every now and again we tend to "slip."

My two biggest weaknesses are caffeine and sugar.

I love coffee, and could drink five cups a day, just because I love the taste, and in the Winter, I just love hunkering down over my work with a steaming cup of Joe.

I also love sweets--mostly cakes,cookies, and chocolate, but any really good dessert is my downfall. Luckily "junk" sugar generally has no appeal for me (other than Reeses Peanut Butter cups), but if someone puts a home-made dessert in front of me, I'm generally going in.

So every so often, when I can find the time, I like to dive into a cleanse, particularly if I feel I need lose a few pounds.

Cleanses are also said to aide in weight loss. The theory is that toxins are stored in fat, and your body is reluctant to let go of the fat while the toxins are stored there. So if you cleanse and rid your body of the toxins stored in the fat, you'll lose the fat more easily.

I have idea if this is in any way scientifically proven, but all I know is that anytime I do a cleanse, I lose weight during the cleanse, and then, provided I stick to a sensible diet and exercise routine afterward, I continue to lose weight.

I lost the bulk of the weight I needed to lose several years ago during and following a three week raw vegan cleanse--close to 25 pounds.

My husband is away on a business trip this week, so I took the opportunity to embark on a 4 day cleanse. It's Winter so raw/vegan isn't going to work for me (although it may work for other people, I just need warm foods this time of year).

I like to try different cleanses, so when I saw this one here:
http://www.garmaonhealth.com/2010/01/detox-time/, I thought it sounded like a sensible one for a cold New England Winter. Essentially you eat or drink nothing but fresh fruit in the mornings, and fresh vegetables in the afternoons and evenings. (Note, this cleanse was apparently first published in the Yoga Journal which can read about it here: http://books.google.com/books?id=_OkDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA51&lpg=PA51&dq=buckthorn+bark+tea+cleanse&source=bl&ots=Rj578F88eO&sig=oXdP5f4XOJkVLpqDhISld7SbCjc&hl=en&ei=MzhuTerdHsTLgQeozK1U&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEYQ6AEwBTgK#v=onepage&q=buckthorn%20bark%20tea%20cleanse&f=false)

The hardest part about this cleanse was finding the ingredients for the cleansing tea you drink twice daily, which I eventually found on-line. I ordered them a couple of weeks ago in anticipation of my husband's trip and brewed up a big batch of the tea on Sunday. I also went to the grocery store and stocked up on fresh fruit and veggies.

I'm on day three of the cleanse, and feel absolutely content. The first day I found myself craving bread, sugar and caffeine, but once I hit day two I was quite content with the vegan produce diet.

Right now I'm drinking a Banana/Mango smoothie I made myself for breakfast. I combined a banana, a mango, a cup of apple cider and a cup of water in the blender. Lunch will probably be broccoli that I'll steam with garlic, lemon and olive oil, and dinner will be a baked sweet potato and a salad.

Thus far I've lost about 1 1/2 pounds (although a lot of that is no doubt excess waste from my colon).